Two Crowns and the Rivalries That Built the Season
One weekend left in the 2026 AVP League season. Two championships get decided at Oak Street Beach. The two rivalries that defined the year sit on opposite sides of their brackets. It starts Saturday morning.
Four teams open in the semifinals. Each is one win from Sunday’s final and two from the crown. Here is what each of them is playing for, and why Saturday’s quarterfinal winners should scare all of them.
The Women’s Title Picture
Palm Beach Passion enters as the #1 seed with the year’s most decorated resume but unfinished business in bracket play. Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson finished 6-2, anchored Palm Beach’s back-to-back AVP Cup title, and Wilkerson led the League in blocks per set at 1.2. Their tournament results have not matched: a fifth at Huntington Beach to open the season and a seventh at Manhattan Beach two weeks ago. The League Championship is the last prize on the 2026 board, and they are the top seed chasing it.
Austin Aces enter as the #2 seed as the hottest team in the sport. Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz swept Dallas to steal this seed, then three-peated at Manhattan Beach without losing a match. Brasher led the entire League in hitting percentage at .529. A title Sunday would complete the kind of season the sport rarely sees: an MBO three-peat and a League Championship in the same summer.
The two are on opposite sides of the bracket, and the history between them is the deepest in the women’s game: Brasher and Cruz lead the career series, but Humana-Paredes and Wilkerson have taken four of the last five, including a straight-set win at Central Park on CBS in their only 2026 League meeting. Nothing past the semifinals is scheduled for either team. But everyone watching knows what Sunday at 1:00 could be.
The Men’s Title Picture
Miami Mayhem enter as the #1 seed with the League’s best season. Taylor Crabb and Andy Benesh went 7-1, then won the Manhattan Beach Open without dropping a single set. Benesh led the League in blocks per set at an astounding 1.706 and in total blocks at 29. The best regular-season record in the League and the best result of August belong to the same team.
Palm Beach Passion enter as the #2 seed as the defending League Champions. Trevor Crabb and Phil Dalhausser won this title in 2025, added back-to-back AVP Cup crowns, and arrive with Dalhausser expected on the sand after his Manhattan Beach withdrawal. The two teams split their regular-season meetings, each winning in straight sets: Miami at Aspen in Week 2, Palm Beach in Miami a week later.
The brothers are on opposite sides of the bracket. Taylor has the better record, the better August, and the League’s most dominant blocker beside him. Trevor has the reigning title and the most decorated player in AVP history beside him. A Sunday meeting would be Taylor playing for the crown his brother currently holds, with the season series tied. It is not scheduled. It is the men’s story of the weekend anyway.
Saturday Decides Who Gets the Chance
The four semifinal teams have to be beaten by somebody, and Saturday’s quarterfinal winners will arrive believing they are the somebody.
San Diego Smash’s women already wrote the blueprint on Miami, dragging Megan Kraft to her roughest hitting day of the season in their East Hampton three-setter. Dallas Dream’s Kylie DeBerg and Betsi Flint own a straight-set win over Brooklyn from the regular season and open the whole weekend with the chance to repeat it. Brooklyn Blaze’s Lexy Denaburg and Julia Donlin are the reigning League Champions on the women’s side, seeded fourth and dangerous to anyone.
On the men’s side, Austin enters on the steepest surge in the League, 3 straight wins across East Hampton and Dallas. New York Nitro climbed from 1-5 to a locked playoff berth on the strength of a Central Park sweep, and Chaim Schalk and James Shaw already beat Austin once this season. And the San Diego and LA men have spent the season proving they can beat each other, which means one of them arrives at Palm Beach’s semifinal battle-tested by the other.
Last week’s blog has the full quarterfinal breakdown. The short version: nobody waiting in the semifinals gets a free Saturday.
How to Watch
Saturday, September 5 (CT) — every match streams live on the AVP YouTube Channel
- 10:00 AM — Women’s Quarterfinal 1: Brooklyn Blaze vs Dallas Dream
- 11:00 AM — Men’s Quarterfinal 1: New York Nitro vs Austin Aces
- 12:00 PM — Women’s Quarterfinal 2: Miami Mayhem vs San Diego Smash
- 1:00 PM — Men’s Quarterfinal 2: San Diego Smash vs LA Launch
- 2:00 PM — Women’s Semifinal 1: Palm Beach Passion vs QF 1 winner
- 3:00 PM — Men’s Semifinal 1: Miami Mayhem vs QF 1 winner
Sunday, September 6 (CT)
- 10:00 AM — Women’s Semifinal 2: Austin Aces vs QF 2 winner (CBS Sports Network)
- 11:00 AM — Men’s Semifinal 2: Palm Beach Passion vs QF 2 winner (CBS Sports Network)
- 1:00 PM — Women’s Final (CW)
- 2:00 PM — Men’s Final (CW)
Event Details
The 2026 AVP League Championships run Saturday and Sunday, September 5-6 at Oak Street Beach, 1001 N. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago. Get your tickets here.
AVP members get 10% off all event tickets, 25% off AVP merch, and 30% off Wilson volleyballs. Join at members.avp.com.
Eight weeks of the regular season, a Cup decided by one match point, a three-peat at the Granddaddy, and now one weekend for the crowns. The 2026 season gets its final word at Oak Street Beach.
Follow it all at avp.com/league.
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